Ralph Fiennes Biography

Ralph Fiennes (born on December 22, 1962) is an Oscar-nominated English
actor.

Biography

Born in Suffolk, England to photographer Mark Fiennes (died 2005) and the
artist Jennifer Lash (died 1993), he is the eldest of six children. The actor
Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love, Luther) is his brother. His sister Martha
works as a director. In her film Onegin, he acted the title role. He is a cousin
of the famous adventurer Sir Ranulph Fiennes and an eighth cousin of the Prince
of Wales.

The family moved to Ireland in 1973, living in West Cork and County Kilkenny for
some years. They moved to Salisbury in England where Ralph finished his
schooling before attending Chelsea College of Art.

Ralph Fiennes then trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and joined the Royal
Shakespeare Company in 1988. He is the only actor ever to have won a Tony Award
for playing Hamlet on Broadway. In 2001 Fiennes received the William Shakespeare
Award from the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Ralph Fiennes' film debut was in 1992, when he played Heathcliff in Wuthering
Heights opposite Juliette Binoche. But it was in the following year that he
became known internationally, portraying amoral Nazi concentration camp
commandant Amon Göth in Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, for which he was
nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

In 1994 Ralph Fiennes portrayed American academic Charles Van Doren in Quiz
Show, and in 1996, he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for The
English Patient.

Ralph Fiennes' work has ranged from thrillers (Red Dragon) to animated Biblical epic
(The Prince of Egypt) to campy nostalgia (The Avengers) to romantic comedy (Maid
in Manhattan). In 2002, Fiennes and Miranda Richardson received critical acclaim
for their performances in David Cronenberg's award-winning thriller Spider.

Ralph Fiennes married actress Alex Kingston (Dr. Corday from ER) in 1993, but
they divorced in 1997. In 1995, he started dating Francesca Annis, his
much-older (18 years) co-star in Hamlet. In February 2006, the couple separated.
This came after tabloid reports that said Fiennes had had an affair.

In 2004, Ralph Fiennes was cast as Lord Voldemort in the fourth film of the
Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. The film was released
in November 2005. Fiennes will reprise the role in its sequels.

Also in 2005, The Constant Gardener was released, with Fiennes as the title
role. The film is set in the slums of Kibera and Loiyangalani, Kenya. The
situation affected the crew to the extent that they set up the Constant Gardener
Trust in order to provide basic education around these villages. Fiennes is a
patron of the charity.

Trivia

His role in Schindler's List earned him an Academy Award nomination for
Best Supporting Actor. While he didn't win the Oscar, he did win the Best
Supporting Actor BAFTA Award.

In his 2006 appearance on Inside the Actor's Studio, Fiennes revealed
that his favorite word is "heart" and his least favorite is "flabbergasted".
Fiennes also stated that if he were not an actor, he would work in wildlife
preservation and conservation, saying that he is "turned off" by
environmental destruction and pollution.

It is said that in a scene in Red Dragon, when he is naked running down
the stairs in his house, his genital area had to be darkened because his
genitals were swinging too much.